Many health professionals have gone on strike in Sri Lanka, though this has been suspended for a fortnight by court order. Other workers too are threatening industrial action if their pay is not raised to match the cost of living.

In a landmark lecture at Swansea University this week, a leading Welsh historian and theologian will argue that our thinking about welfare and economics needs to be turned upside down through engagement with disabled people and carers.

"With fresh figures showing a return to economic growth over last year, George Osborne has a spring in his step. Growth is back, jobs are being created; his plan is vindicated in time for today's budget. There’s work still to do, but he’s building a 'resilient economy' he believes.

The contested details of the latest proposals from the UK Chancellor are only partly illustrative of the momentous economic challenge that lies behind and beyond the Budget, says Simon Barrow. Right now the entire system based at Westminster is failing adequately to comprehend and address, let alone tackle, the really big issues in which economics is a major factor.

It's time to talk about, and talk up, monetary reform – to ensure that the public good that is our money system once again serves the interests of wider society, not just those of private wealth. So says groundbreaking political economist Ann Pettifor, whose new book 'Just Money' demystifies the nature of money and the finance system, showing how and why it needs to be reconstructed.

The arrival of Ann Pettifor's latest book, 'Just Money: How society can break the despotic power of finance' is an important publishing moment, says Ekklesia co-director Simon Barrow. It unmasks the false ideologies of austerity and neoliberalism.